The Flax Project
‘The Flax Project’ is part of an ongoing collaboration between Toronto Metropolitan University’s Urban Farm and its Fashion Program. Over the past 3 years, faculty member Rachel MacHenry has worked with farm Operations Manager Jess Russell to grow small demonstration plots of flax in the Fashion Program’s natural dye garden located on the rooftop farm. With the assistance of two student research assistants, Emma Piercey and Mika Soetaert, the flax plants were harvested, and the team carried out the many fibre processing stages, including rippling the seed and then retting, breaking, hackling, skutching, combing and spinning the fibre, and finally hand weaving it into a linen textile.
This project revives historical knowledge lost with the advent of industrial fashion production, and combines this with a contemporary understanding of ecology and sustainable design; ‘The Flax Project’ suggests the potential for regional agricultural and textile systems to engage with the field of design. The project demonstrates that sustainable, locally grown linen can be part of a regional design strategy while also highlighting participatory design education and research.
Participants
Toronto Metropolitan University (Rachel MacHenry, Emma Piercey, Mika Soetaert), Toronto Metropolitan University Urban Farm (Jessica Russell), Toronto Metropolitan University Fashion ProgramAccessibility
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